Mortgage servicers have slowed the pace of foreclosures since the fourth quarter of 2010, when they faced allegations of using improper and fraudulent paperwork to repossess homes with delinquent mortgages. The five largest servicers, including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., reached a $25 billion settlement with state and federal regulators in February.
Four states -- Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington -- had increases in the overdue rate for loans more than 90 days late. Foreclosure starts decreased in 41 states and the rate of loans in foreclosures fell in 22 states.
Florida, California
Florida accounted for 24.1 percent of the loans awaiting foreclosure, followed by California with 9.8 percent, Illinois with 6.6 percent, New York with 6.5 percent and New Jersey with 5.5 percent, the report showed. Except for California, those states all require judicial review of foreclosures, which prolongs the time line for repossessing homes.
"The problem continues to be the slow-moving judicial foreclosure systems in some of the largest states," Fratantoni said in the statement. "While the rate of foreclosure starts is essentially the same in judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states, the percent of loans in the foreclosure process has reached another all-time high in the judicial states, 6.9 percent."